Obesity And School Lunch Analysis

Obesity can often be the consequence of living in a household that instill unhealthy eating habits. Schools can be a positive influence on teens early in life so that obese teens can lead into their adult lives with healthier habits. With these healthier habits, they may likely have more energy to become positive influences in others lives to be healthy and be able to do more. If schools can make such an impact on students’ lives, they should try, even if they needed to sacrifice extra money or instructional time. In 2007, there was a study that only one fifth of high school students had eaten fruits and vegetables at least five times a day in a week (Wexler, 2010). While it is unreasonable to force someone to eat these foods, if they are regularly offered as part of school lunches, students may eat them if they have finished the rest of their lunch and are hungry. Schools should be encouraged to even add fruits and vegetables to vending machines for healthier options.

In terms, Unhealthy cafeteria food is a problem for countless reasons. Eating unhealthy foods at school at an early age can lead to bad eating habits for the rest of their lives. This leads to obesity in children, and continuing to adults. Researchers have shown currently, over two thirds of states in America have obesity rates for adults over twenty percent and nearly 1 in 3 children are overweight or obese due to an increase in fat intake. The feared “freshman 15” is often discussed among students; however it is not just a weight issue that needs to be worried about (Obesity). As I mention previously, Several dangers are associated with eating fatty foods that do not have nutritional value. It leads to obesity, and the consequences for that besides psychological repercussions can be heart attack, stroke, high blood pressure, diabetes, knee and joint problems, various types of cancer and finally, death (Obesity). Every year in the United States three hundred thousand deaths occur that are associated with obesity (Obesity). This problem that begins with young children eating unhealthy foods in cafeterias needs to be stopped. Ardis, 2011

Over the years, school lunches have become a very large issue in our country. Not only are they disgusting, they are unhealthy and should not be served to anybody let alone kids. In the video, “What’s wrong with school lunches,” led by Ann Cooper, she held several very strong arguments regarding school lunches. Ann cooper made several important points on what is wrong with school lunches. She mainly spoke about how it is very necessary to expose kids to healthy foods, and that we have to teach them why it is so important to consume healthy foods rather than foods that are processed. She explained that the way that all of these unhealthy/processed foods are advertised, play a very large role on not only children’s lives, but also everybody’s

Observational studies were done on school children in kindergarten through third grade. The article explains that the children’s BMIs (body mass index) were measured at the beginning of the school year, end of the school year, and then again at the beginning of the following school year. It was seen that the BMI increase of the children increased twice as much during the three summer months than during the nine-month school frame. This infers that children gain more weight and are more incline to become overweight in their own home environment than their school environment. Sloviter makes a point that this increase in BMI at such a young age will lead to an increased risk for adult obesity. She concludes the article by briefly reminding the reader to remember that there are other factors that contribute to childhood obesity and the largest factor may not be the school lunch environment after all.

Food and drinks located at school are healthy and state approved. If these students don’t eat our food they’ll eat greasy and fatty food sure to give them health issues. These young teens idea of food is a burger with friends and a large soda; this is sure to get the overweight.

The organization of Debatewise stated that controlling the foods that students consume is important in combating obesity, as the dieting habits that most people form originate from when they were young. This is why it’s so crucial for schools to introduce healthier options in schools. If these unhealthy habits are developed, the students are “at higher risk for having other chronic health conditions and diseases that impact physical health..”, says the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. These conditions can affect them emotionally and physically, including depression and obesity, which are important health issues both linked with the consumption of junk foods. The selling of junk food in schools is not a small problem either, as it concludes from a study by the Institute of Medicine in 2003 that elementary schools earn approximately $442 million annually from junk food sales. The importance of changing the school lunch programs to implement healthier options is high when there is so much money being spent by the students. Although obesity is a real problem due to the selling of junk food, it can lead to other problems that leading a healthier way of living could fix. For instance, the University of New Hampshire Cooperative Extension states junk foods, due to processing that removes vitamins, minerals, and fiber from the product, are empty calories that are ultimately worthless to the body. This alone contributes to unneeded weight gain and provides no additional sustenances that help the body grow. The Harvard Health Publications describes this to be a serious problem, and acknowledge not only this to be a complication, but mentions the unnecessarily high amounts of sodium levels in the foods, stating that “...the average

68 percent of students say they buy food from the cafeteria every day. Proper nutrition is tied to better academic performance. This means that kids will not do their best in school if they are fed unhealthy lunches (Black). The unhealthy lunches kids are given at school are the main contribution to childhood obesity. According to scientists, children who eat too much fat, sugar, sodium or processed food and too few vitamins and minerals are likely to develop a higher risk over time for several chronic health problems (Angela). These health problems include heart disease, and diabetes. At this time, more than ever, 55 percent of Americans are obese and 20 percent of Americans are overweight (Three Facts About School Lunches). Many schools offer healthy choices, but they did not decrease the calories in them, and they typically still offer unhealthy snack items (Three Facts About School Lunches). In a school cafeteria with both healthy and unhealthy choices offered to kids, most kids are not willing to choose the healthier choices over the unhealthy ones. So where an apple is avoided and a bag of potato chips is selected as a child’s first choice for a snack

However, despite the successes, the NSLP is also known for inducing blame and stigmatization to its students. According to the SNDA, only 35% of schools meet with the SMI recommended calories. However, the NSLP instead of recognizing that schools are not meeting with the recommended intake because of its overconsumption of commodities, they blame the students and the schools for the lack of healthful practices. For example, Allen and Guttmann (2002) in Neoliberalization from the ground up states how the introduction of the wellness policy under the NSLP recognizes that schools are faulty for nutritional goals and that it should be their role to prevent childhood obesity and other health problems (Allen& Guttmann, 2002) Finally, in his article Competitive Foods, Discrimination and Participating in the National School Lunch Program, Rajiv Bhatia(2011) mentions how the NSLP fails to provide neutral quality services by making the program inaccessible to low income students. According to a 2009 national survey, despite that many schools are eligible for free lunches, only 30% of US schools had participation rates under 25% and only 10% have participates rates of 14% (Bhatia, 2011). In other words, according to Bhatia (2011), despite that many students are eligible for free meals, many are refusing to eat because of their fear of being stigmatized. Having said this, the NSLP fails to meet with the goals of the welfare state. Even though, the NSLP meets with certain goals such as

Today one in five school-aged children (ages 6-19) have obesity and people debate over how to decrease this number and prevent it from being more of an issue in the future. School lunches are often brought up in this discussion, some say that by getting rid of all junk food in schools would help decrease the number of obese students and prevent them in future by providing only healthy food options. On the other hand, they say that it's not that simple, the problems are at home and that getting rid of these items could decrease revenues for school activities from those products. Many people believe that junk food should be banned from schools across the nation.

In light of the concerns for the future of health in the United States, there have been movements, which in turn ignited sparks to jumpstart campaigns to fight against junk food and obesity. Michelle Obama, the First Lady of the United States, kickstarted a campaign called “Let’s Move” which is dedicated to help solve and reverse the rising childhood obesity rates (Learnthefacts). This movement is all about preserving the health for the future generations. The main goals for this movement is to give parents helpful information and fostering environments that support healthy choices, provide healthier food choices in schools, and to make sure healthy food alternatives are affordable for any family(Learnthefacts). In my junior year of high school,

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Nationally, about 17% of people under the age of 20, about 12.5 million are considered obese. School districts that serve students food that are high in calories and fat are to blame for the growing numbers of obese children. Although school lunches provide students food at minimal costs, the poor quality of food served delivers inadequate nutrition and is responsible for the rising numbers of obese minors in the United States. In order to combat this growing problem, school districts must limit student choices in the lunchroom and provide healthier food nationally. Although some school districts may argue this, it is necessary to do so as school districts in Pennsylvania and Mississippi and university studies support this claim.

Healthier school lunches will help to stop the ever-growing percentage of obese children. According to the CDC, or Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, obesity is caused when more energy is consumed than energy burned. This means that the heavy, caloric lunches that are being served across the nation are too sugary and lead to obesity. Healthier school lunches also mean that purchasable sugary snacks will have to disappear to keep students as healthy as possible. Moreover, a YRBS (Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance) survey was conducted every other year since 2003. Since 2005, states such as Oklahoma, Nebraska, Delaware, and New Mexico have had a rapid increase of obese teens. Oklahoma’s teen obesity rate rose 2% between 2005 and 2015,

Many people in today 's generation are constantly are craving junk food. It is patently evident junk food plays a major role in the cause of obesity. According to a study called "Psychological science", Obesity leads to numerous health issues including heart disease, high blood pressure and type 2 diabetes. The treatment of these health issues cost billions of tax health dollars (Physiological science, 2014). Permitting junk food in schools will cause greater chances of obesity. Students will be heading on a venture. Furthermore, obesity is a continuous major problem since the past several years. In 2010, a 4 year old girl named

Junk food, junk food, junk food is around all corners of schools. Chocolate, cookies, soda, potato chips, and Sour Strings may sound delectable to some people, but are they nutritious? Some people wonder if there should be a change. Encouraging exceptional nutrition in schools is essential by reasons of students will consume foods that are better for them, schools will pay less for meals, and fewer students would go hungry.